First man made organism

For years, we have been dreaming of the day when we can synthesize life, sharing these extreme ideas in the form of fiction. This day has finally arrived, in the from of a bacteria which looked a bit like a pair of coloured contact lenses when placed side by side:

 Picture taken from BBC website

For a rough idea, the gene of this synthetic bacteria was coded on a computer before transferring it into a host cell. And yes, it is able to replicate. Sounds so much like writing a new software but in this case, we're writing the sequence to a new life.

No doubt, this will lead to the next thought of what if this technology falls into the wrong hands? Is it in the right hands in the first place? Imagine parents mix and matching features of their unborn child like how you customise a character in The Sims. 'I prefer a tone lighter for her skin colour and nose bridge a bit higher'. It'll be soon when everyone will start looking the same as most of us have been influenced by the same concept of beauty. Who wouldn't be affected from being bombarded with 'skinny is beautiful' every single time you switch on the television, flip open a magazine or even reading the newspapers?

What if I hate someone a lot? Can I just create a bacteria which infects only that person and give him/her tonsillitis as it is programmed to be attracted to his/her DNA and no one else? Maybe I'll give him/her the flu virus instead.

Scary but we're creating the impossible everyday. May the right people create it and remains in the hands of those who are willing to risk their lives to protect it. Remember Alfred Nobel? He invited the dynamite in order to make it easier for mining, but what happened in the end? It was all too powerful

Somehow, deep in my heart, I am still highly attracted to all these potentially dangerous possibilities since the first day I came across the concept of cloning.